The spirit of 1968 was fortified not only by physical struggle, but through the ideological battle of ideas and some of the ideological influences of the period.

Centrality of Marxist-Leninist thought (e.g. Fanon, Mao, Che)

If you believe the 3rd World is the protagonist of revolution, how you support or participate in it is going to play out strategically?

Tricontinental or Black Panther Party newspaper, speeches, pamphlets, film

How is space being opened up for women? For queer people? For other groups that had previously been left out of the conversation? What barriers remained to those groups breaking through?

Counterrevolutionary forces—how to trying to suppress and repress more radical ideas

Neoliberalism as a political project—animates how people make economic decisions

It’s important to pay attention not only to the relationship of ideas and actions during the period, but also the tools and vehicles used to circulate those ideas.

What kinds of assumptions do people on the left make get shaped by the period? What is our common sense (either proactively or because of the backlash)

Questions to Consider in Relationship to this Week’s Assigned Materials:

Continuing on the theme of the crisis of hegemony in the ’68 period, what are some of the ways that the materials for this week illustrate shifts in or breaks from what had been dominant beliefs and ideas? How do ideas battle each other?

What are the economic and political conditions from which these ideologies are emerging?

We have discussed this period as one of worldwide revolution. What are some of the beliefs and ideas that bind people together in this period that help generate a sense of global consciousness that fuel shared struggles across the globe?

What are different ways that organizations/parties mobilize ideology?

What role(s) do vehicles from platforms to newspapers and newsletters, to film, printmaking, and music play in forwarding the revolutionary ideologies of the period? What are some of the ways that they draw connections between the liberation struggles of the time?